A Corpse in the Soup: A Silver Sisters Mystery

Goldie Silver and Godiva Olivia DuBois may be identical twins with the ability to communicate with one another telepathically, but that's where their similarity ends. Fashion-conscious Godiva, living in Beverly Hills, writes an advice column called Ask G.O.D. Free spirit Goldie lives in Juneau, Alaska, where she owns an antique store. Godiva takes Goldie's daughter Chili, a sous chef, to the taping of popular Chef Caesar Romano's show. Romano asks Godiva to sample the food and she passes out from food poisoning. Goldie flies in to help, and at the hospital, Romano confides that someone is sabotaging his show. Romano offers Chili a job as his assistant, and Goldie and Godiva put their heads together to try to figure out who's got it in for Romano. When his nemesis Biff Wellington is found with a knife in his back, Romano's the number one suspect and Godiva, romantically interested in Romano, is out to prove him innocent, along with the help of her sister Goldie and their mother and uncle, two former Vaudeville magicians. This fun mystery romp will keep the reader guessing while enjoying the antics of Goldie and Godiva, along with their quirky family. The characters are amusing and endearing, and even the dog Waldo has his humorous moments. The plot moves along crisply, offering plenty of red herrings, and is twisty enough to provide a good whodunit. A Corpse in the Soup, first of the Silver Sisters Mystery series written by sisters St. James and Bradner, is a refreshing addition to the mystery world.

The zany Silver Sisters have a new publisher. A Corpse in the Soup, a wacky chase through the glitzy world of TV chefs in search of a killer, has been reissued by L & L Dreamspell, as they are the new publishers of the series. Goldie, an over-the-hill hippie who owns an antique shop in Juneau, Alaska, and her twin, Beverly Hills advice columnist Godiva Olivia DuBois, find themselves in some pretty hot water in this debut novel in the series. Godiva is accidentally poisoned on a TV cooking show, "Flirting With Food", and her Mae West lookalike twin, Goldie, rushes to her side. But there's more to it than that. Godiva begins to date the handsome chef and learns that some pretty bad things have been happening on the show. The chef, Caesar Romano, is the favored competitor in the upcoming Greatest Gourmet Gladiators Tournament, and someone is trying to keep him from capturing the title. The second book, "Seven Deadly Samovars", is now available in audio book, with paperback and Kindle releasing by the end of August, 2009. During the tournament, one of the competing chefs is found face down in a bowl of Bouillabaisse and Caesar is arrested as the prime suspect. The police won't look any farther, so Goldie and Godiva and their eighty-year-old mother and uncle, former vaudeville magicians, set out to prove he didn't do it. Schemes backfire, trails lead nowhere, but in a hilarious ending the twins and their eldersleuth sidekicks discover whodunit.

Hippies, divas, bimbos, Hollywood has-beens, mumbling dogs and magicians, not to mention psycho-chefs and murderers, inhabit real-life sister-authors Morgan St. James' (age before beauty) and Phyllice Bradner's wacky world of the "who the hell done it" Silver Sisters...take a wild guess at which sister-author is the model for the Silver Sister called GOD...hint: think antique British sports car meets Monopoly deed in the orange group or call Elaine Pransky in LA for the answer...even the ordinary Main Street America characters are flakey-shakey-quakey...well, it is California, of course...except for Alaska, which had the biggest North American earthquake ever in 1964 at 8.9 Richter and figures big in the story...bottom line: if you can't handle a pun, son, this aint't gonna be your fun...it was for me! A Corpse in the Soup

Two sisters have a knack for solving crimes and this one is a doozy. One sister, Godiva Dubois, is wealthy and an advice columnist under the name G. O. D. while the other sister, Goldie, lives in Alaska and has an antiques shop. Godiva lures her niece to Los Angeles with tickets to a cooking show with a famous chef who she, Godiva, has taken a fancy too. Her sister soon follows and they are plunged into the world of cookery and contests and murder when one of the chefs is found face down in some bouillabaisse with a knife in his back. With their mother and uncle's aid, the sisters gather clues to the identity of the killer. Talented authors Morgan St. James and Phyllice Bradner introduce us to the egotistic contestants of this cooking contest and names of dishes we don't make in our kitchens. Lots of fun and action to carry the tale along without a hitch. I'm pleased to highly recommend this tale to any mystery buff who enjoys a tongue-in-cheek style of story telling with lots of fun characters who take you by the hand and lead you a merry chase after a killer. Guaranteed to provide many smiles and even provoke some laughter as you read. Enjoy. I sure did.

Reviewed by Olivera Baumgartner-Jackson for Reader Views (3/07) Take several chefs, add some classy - and less classy - ladies, a couple of well-aged vaudeville actors, a talking dog, a bunch of gofers and miscellaneous Hollywood characters, and add a heaping cup of jealousy, a pinch of intrigue, a smidgen of history. Garnish with incredibly funny names (Sterling Silver, Biff Wellington, Chili Pepper, Justin Thyme, Mr. Manicotti, Caesar Romano...), take a shot at the increasingly popular cooking shows and stir well. What do you get? You get a recipe for an amusing, frothy, yet not lightweight romp. The characters are lovable and believable, even when they leave you shaking your head in wonder over their antics. The story flows well and pulls you in very quickly. Although you might think quite early in the book that you know who the villain is, I would be surprised if you'd truly manage to solve this mystery before the final pages. The dashing Beverly Hills advice columnist Godiva Olivia Dubois a.k.a. G.O.D. is poisoned during the taping of a TV cooking show. Her sister Goldie arrives from Alaska to help. The famous TV chef Caesar Romano feels guilty - or just afraid of a lawsuit? He not only starts cooking for Godiva - and courting her, but he also hires Goldie's daughter Chili Pepper as his assistant. While things are getting hotter, the action escalates at the Kitchen Coliseum. The four best chefs are ready to battle in the Gourmet Gladiators Tournament. After a lot of showing off - and some of the absolutely most amusing scenes, including a Polish Cajun chef and a Jewish-Japanese one - it is again down to the Chef Caesar Romano and Chef Biff Wellington. Who will reign supreme? Alas, the buff Biff is found face-down in his own soup and Chef Romano is the prime suspect. The twins are keen on exonerating him, but get into some serious trouble themselves. Fast-paced and laugh-out-loud funny, this was a quick and satisfying read. Morgan St. James and Phyllice Bradner are sisters in real life, so that might explain why their co-operation worked out so well in a book as well. I certainly hope this was not the last book they've written together. Silver Sisters rule! I would highly recommend "A Corpse in the Soup" to any mystery lover, particularly those who enjoy the Cooking Channel and love a good, funny read.